[private] to your sharp and glorious thorn

[Beyza]

Slowly, day by day, it felt like Beyza was waking up from the dream that has been life in Ischia. With her three daughters and the assortment of tropical creatures, it had become a welcome respite - one that may be beginning to end. She knew she could not keep the girls there forever, not even magically. If they chose to leave, chose to make their home somewhere else, she could not stop them. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t check in with them now and them, mostly just to make sure their father wasn’t causing them any problems. They deserved better than the parents they had received, better than the fact that they had been created to be used. Today is a rare day where her mind is elsewhere - particularly on the fact that it has been a while since she’s met anyone new. And longer still since she’s ventured back to the mainland. So she leaves behind her tropical home for the day and discovers that the world is in autumn. The meadow is a pleasant combination of green and gold grass dappled with the brilliant red of the oaks. Dusk is settling over the landscape but she does not pause there in the open. As her body begins to emit a soft white light, she moves into the forest. The memories do not have the same bite here as they once did but this place still holds a little magic for her still. This was where she had first started to question the path she thought she belonged on. Ever since Maurtia had first begun to show a troublesome knack for it, Beyza had been practicing with the ability to manipulate bone. Mostly just to unearth remains, seeing what might be buried around Ischia - much to her daughter’s delight. Now she uses it as she slowly wanders, soil and leaf litter shifting in the ground as bones emerge. She walks like this for a time, she can no longer remember exactly where she had killed the filly but none of the handful of skulls she unearths belongs to a foal. She’s not quite sure why she’s even looking. And she should return them to their graves, whoever they are, and maybe she will do that on the way back home. For now she just continues in the twilight woods, leaving a zigzag and haphazard trail of bones behind her. B E Y Z A

artwork by musonart

@Torryn <3